Chapter 60: Chapter 60 - Julia’s Plan
For a few moments I was completely frozen.
I found myself in the arms of my sister’s husband, it should have felt wrong.
I should have despised the feeling of being in the arms of any man, let alone the husband of another, and yet I didn’t.
Instead I felt... safe.
For the first time in my life, I felt safe because of someone else, and not because of my own power.
I don’t know from what I felt safe.
I don’t know why I felt so... protected.
I just know that that is what I felt.
"Catharina?" Daniel asked, looking down at me with worry.
I finally snapped out of whatever it was that I had been caught up in, and flung myself out of his arms.
"I’m fine." I answered, feeling my face heat up. "We should keep moving."
My words had no effect on the worry in Daniel’s eyes though.
"Let’s break for lunch," Daniel said instead.
Without giving me a chance to deny it, he moved into a small clearing between the trees and started to pull pre-packed meals from his storage.
"I told you you were in love with him," Julia whispered as she stepped next to me.
"I’m not in love with him," I answered. "Why would you want that, he’s your husband?"
"Come with me," Julia said, grabbing my hand and dragging me away from the group.
We moved a distance away from the clearing, until we couldn’t even see the men through the trees anymore.
The only way we could tell they were even still there was from the noises of packages opening, and voices drifting on the wind.
"Have you ever seen a powerful man in this world with only one wife?" Julia asked when we came to a stop.
"Of course not, but that doesn’t mean you have to start gathering wives for him," I answered, Julia’s logic made no sense to me.
I had seen the way she acted when there were any women around Daniel, she looked like she wanted to gut them.
She even looked that way at me sometimes, and now there she was basically telling me to make a move on her husband.
The girl made no sense.
"Do you think I want to share my husband with anyone?"
"I just know that eventually there will be women who try to worm their way into his heart."
"This way I can at least control who is allowed that privilege." She answered.
Once again, it made absolutely no sense to me.
If she wanted to control who was actually allied into Daniel’s heart, why not just stop anyone else from getting the opportunity?
Which is exactly what I asked her.
"Because my plans for him would make that almost impossible." Julia answered.
Over the days I had spent with them, I had noticed Julia subtly manipulating Daniel’s movements, placing him in situations where his reputation would improve.
Basically she was gathering faith for him.
I knew there was more to it than her wanting to increase his strength, and lifespan.
But I had never asked her what she was planning, I felt it had nothing to do with me, but now that I had become a part of those plans...
"And what exactly are your plans for him?" I asked.
"To make a ruler out of him." She answered.
I was stunned by the simplicity of her answer, yet the complicated path said plan could take.
"Why?" I asked.
Julia turned away from me, looking through the trees, her gaze fixed on the spot where the men were enjoying their lunch. Almost as if she could see through all the obstacles between her and Daniel.
"You haven’t truly seen the way he thinks," Julia said, her mind seemingly miles away from where we stood. "The way he analyzes systems, the way he immediately finds ways to improve on the systems already implemented."
"The way he finds a way to improve not only the state of the territory he wishes to improve, but also the people who live there."
"The way he finds ways to implement taxes without burdening the people."
Finally Julia turned back to me, her gaze now even more determined than it was when she told me she wanted to make Daniel a ruler.
"I want to make a ruler out of him, because he deserves to be one." She said.
It made sense to me why Daniel would make a good leader.
Even though the man was not at all good with people.
And by that I don’t mean he was a terrible person, I mean that more than three strangers talking to him at a time would make him freeze up.
If he was surrounded by a large group of people he looked like a turtle crawling back into its shell.
Yet he was charming in his own way.
He was intelligent.
And most importantly, he was empathetic.
He cared deeply about people.
Especially those he considered weak.
"I understand that," I said. "I can see him being an excellent ruler, but I don’t think he’d want that."
"You would be completely right," Julia said, giving me another one of those knowing smiles, which made me blush again. "The chief of Lofie village actually already offered him the position, which he of course declined quite vehemently."
I couldn’t help the smile that spread on my lips when I thought about that.
I could almost envision Daniel’s reaction to that offer, the way he would have laughed the offer off.
The man really believed that he was a simple businessman after all.
"Then how are you planning on making him a ruler?" I asked.
A wide, mischievous, grin spread across Julia’s face.
"By doing it without him even realising it." She said.
"And how exactly are you going to do that?"
"It’s simple really, we’re already doing it," Julia answered. "He thinks the chief is just randomly coming to him to ask for advice and suggestions."
"But every one of those suggestions are immediately implemented by the village."
"We also made sure that every time the chief comes to him, there are some villagers around."
"Which not only increased the faith in Daniel, but also gave them the impression that Daniel is actually the one planning the entire future of the village."
"If we pair that with how much the villagers like him, and the improvements some of his plans have already made, most of them actually already act like he is the true chief of the village." Julia finished.
"That... that’s actually pretty good." I said.
"Of course it is, it’s a simple yet very effective plan." Julia answered. "At first we actually thought the hardest part would be to get the elves to like him, you know how most of them tend to look down on humans."
"But actually that was the easiest part, he hadn’t even worked three shifts in the bar before most of the elves were basically best friends with him."
"I especially had to threaten some of those elvish bit... women away." Julia finished.
"For a man who really isn’t all that good with people, he tends to be quite likeable." I laughed, already imagining Julia threatening elven women to stay away from her husband.
"Sometimes a bit too likeable," Julia said with a frown.
"Speaking of which, when are you going to make your move?"
Once again, for what felt like the hundredth time that day, I was stunned by her.
